Prompt - Also I don't know if your taking requests right now or not, but if you are, could you maybe do a rewrite of 2x2 where Francis returns from the plague and finds out that Mary died?
Side Note - Heavily inspired by Medici : The Magnificent series finale of series 2. Go watch it if you haven't.
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"It's the King!"
"King Francis!"
"Long Live the King!"
"Open the gates! The King has returned to us!"
"Praise God!"
The Queen Mother of France so uncharacteristically pushes past the crowds hovering in the eastern courtyard to catch a glimpse of her son of who'm she hadn't set eyes on in far too many weeks. She's desperate, tears line her eyes as the noblemen in sombre colours continue to block her path in their own quests to look at the King for the first time since attaining his crown, post his fathers' jousting accident death at the hands of Lord Montgomery. Small Medici hands begin to tremble as she finally catches a glimpse of her son.
There he is, astride a large brown bare. His hair is askew, but the sunlight makes it shimmer in a way that is marvellously pleasant to see. Bright blue eyes are lined with purple, and his clothing is askew, but it hardly matters to the new Queen Mother of France. Seeing her eldest son, without question her favourite child, safe, alive, breathing after over two weeks of fearing for his safety, being absolutely convinced that he had joined his father in the myriad of the dead instead of the land of the living. He sits up straight, holds onto the reigns with one hand, the other laying limply across his saddle. He is there, Francis breathes.
But soon, his mother fears that the grief that she will have to impose upon him will choke the life from his lungs that are so very precious, to both her and all of France.
Unable to help herself due to the relief she feels in his return, the Queen Mother pushes through the last of the crowd and pelts over towards her eldest son, picking up her skirts, nearly stumbling several times due to the great height of her court shoes and the uneven path of the eastern gate. The two embrace tightly, resembling what they had done when the then Dauphin had returned to court following his exile. The new King of France notes how his mother trembles in his arms, but thinks little of it due to the nature of his departure and the suddenness of his return could be described as the culprit of her distress. He chooses to say nothing until she composes herself, hiding her underneath the swoop of his cape.
"Francis!" Catherine finally gasps.
"Mother," he sighs. "Are you alright?"
"I'm unharmed by plague." she says, "Francis, you must come with me now." she says.
"What? Why?" he asks.
"Just come, my son. Don't argue." With that, the King and Queen Mother disappear into the royal palace, and all returns to it's plagued normalcy with an uneasy calmness, even mother earth aware of what travesties were due to take place.
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Shock. Such shock that it threatens to break him in half, again and again and again until he's in a million little tiny pieces. A shock so great that his entire being seems to have ceased working all together. Lesser shock would have caused Kings to go mad and burn down their own Kingdoms just for the power that comes with the flame, lesser shock would have caused screaming and tears and broken glass, lesser shock would have permitted his body to move and his lungs to take in air. The most prominent, true shock of all, the horrid last resort was simply nothing at all. Just to stand and stare at the beautiful young woman laying in front of him, his heart barely beating anymore.
